


Desire and Will

by KingoftheUzbeks



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Academia, Ancestors of canon, Ancient History, Comics Canon selectively applied, Fake History, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Royal Family, Gen, History, Like entire oc nations, Long, Queer characters eventually, Rise to Power, Sun Warriors - Freeform, Would you call those ons?, a shit ton of OCs, this'll take a while
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 22:36:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11954100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingoftheUzbeks/pseuds/KingoftheUzbeks
Summary: "The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want." - IrohThe history of the Fire Nation is long, and often times turbulent. Follow the history of this great land through the eyes of the Minatonotaisho Family, who will one day rise to become Fire Lords. This new history includes new sources found in the archives of the Fire Nation and records from Ba Sing Se.Republic City Gazette #1 Best Seller.





	1. Chapter 1

    

The Fire Nation is not the oldest monarchy in existence, that title goes to the line of kings who founded Ba Sing Se and later united the Earth Kingdom, but it is the most enduring. While Earth Dynasties have fallen to intrigue, been overthrown by peasants or just plain died out the Fire Nation has been ruled since its inception by one family. Technically speaking the family would be the Minatonotaisho Dynasty, Minatonotaisho being the family's name before they rise to power. But there is no need, for to millions of Fire Nation citizens they are simply "The Royal Family". 

But despite their status and longevity modern historiography has proved difficult. Even before the militarization initiated by Fire Lord Kazuki the origins of the family were often draped in propaganda and any negative works were seized during Sozin's Purge. Foreign sources are similarly limited. Written history is uncommon in the Water Tribes and in any event contact was often limited. Earth Kingdom sources generally deal with mundane trade aspects and the Ba Sing Se riots destroyed many of the Bureaucratic records anyway. The Air Nomads likely had a substantial section on the Fire Nation in their Great Southern Library, but it was burned during the Genocide.

That said this work does have numerous sources. Fire Lord Izumi has kindly opened various sealed archives throughout the Fire Nation, and various Fire Sages held banned material in defiance of their Lords. Most notably was a history of the House of Jari, previously thought lost. In addition Lord-Protector Wu has allowed what remains of the Earth Kingdom's library to be opened for study. And of course recent archeological study has opened new doors in unveiling the ancient past.

This book does not claim to be a decisive history of the Fire Islands or Fire Bending. The mysterious Sun Warriors civilization is not covered extensively and major events like the Flower Wars are only mentioned in passing as they have little to do with the development of the Minatonotaisho Family on Karudera. Instead it focuses on the history of the Fire Nation as a political unit through the lens of the most important family in its history.


	2. Chapter 1: Migration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Collapse of the Sun Warriors led to a wide scale migration to the Fire Islands. Here the semi-mythical origins of the Royal Family lay.
> 
> Terrible map is terrible. Me no map well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon not coming directly from the shows will be applied as I see fit, possibly with very different context. 
> 
> The early part of this chapter gives some allusions to modern day life, which will be a reoccurring event.

Like almost every prominent family in the Fire Nation the Royal Family claims direct decent from the mythical Sun Warriors of old. The original firebenders, the Sun Warriors were a collection of city states near the Western Air Temple on the archipelago and the northwest of the future United Republic. Excavation was prohibited under Fire Lord Sozin's police's and expeditions remain banned to this day despite Fire Lord Zuko repealing all other bans of a similar type. Thankfully the Sun Warriors do not fit into this history except as they are collapsing, so little time will be wasted speculating. Around 4000 BG the civilization fell into decline, likely due to dwindling supplies of fresh water and increasing warfare between cities. Either economic pressures or a desire for more land led to a large scale movement towards the Fire Islands.

The Fire Islands were originally settled by non-bender migrants from the then disunited Earth Kingdom. It's inhabitants were largely petty rice farming Kingdoms, constantly warring with one another but with no dominant forces emerging. The only military power of note was the trading system centered around Ember Island which employed a navy of mercenaries to protect their trade routes. Also inhabiting the islands was the only population of dragons outside of the Sun Warriors reach, which now doubt influenced the migration patterns of the refugees. A combination of dragonpower and Fire Bending gave the Sun Warriors major advantages over the natives. At the (possibly mythical) Battle of Ember Island the mercenary fleet deserted their employers, effectively ending any unified resistance to Sun Warrior domination. While the rest of their civilization crumbled the migrants carved out a new, powerful, position in the Fire Islands. By 3

500 BG the migrations were complete and the Sun Warriors began to tame the native dragons and further take control of the Islands.

This is where the story of the Minatonotaisho Family begins. Legend tells of the second son naned Iroh. Iroh exposed his elder brother Riku killing a man, an action that should have seen Riku banished and Iroh become heir to their Sun Warrior father's throne. However Iroh was instead banished into the mountains of Karudera where he lived off the land and meditated on the nature of justice. Here he met, fought and tamed a great dragon. Word of his accomplishment spread and he soon gained a small following of men. Riku, by now King in his own right, cowered in fear of Iroh's revenge. But Iroh did not seek to attack Riku. Instead he turned go a small seaside town named Minato. Minato was still ruled by the original inhabitants of the Fire Islands and had resisted previous assaults. But Iroh won the love of the local princess who opened the gates for her lover. Iroh conquered Minato and was acclaimed king. It was from this that his family was named Minatonotaisho. Iroh then ruled happily for the rest of his days and passed power to his son. Meanwhile Riku's kingdom was rather anticlimacticly leveled by an earthquake.

This story is obviously myth, no records of any of the individuals mentioned exist. In addition it is dubious that any town on the coast had resisted Sun Warrior attack for very long. Holdouts did exist, but they were universally inland. However certain elements do ring true. Dragon taming was a critical way of asserting power and even just one dragon could sway the forces of a battle. In addition the point about a native marriage is viral, Sun Warriors quickly married into native families and were soon bred out of existence. With the obvious exception of Fire Bending none of the reported traits of the Sun Warriors appears in current citizens of the Fire Nation. The first reports of a town called Minato appear in a record from the Fire Sages. Little can be gleaned from this, as it simply lists Minato as one of the cities that had declared itself neutral in a minor skirmish between rival states. Minato likely began life as a moderately successful trading port. Located at the very end of Twin Dagger Sea it was well placed for any merchants who wished to trade with the various Kingdoms of Karudera but did not wish to risk a full journey around either dagger. It also likely was a place of refuge in times of storms. So it was likely a local power over the area, but by no means destined for greatness. Even the official histories of the Fire Nation, infamous amongst historians for overplaying the importance of the Minatonotaisho Family, say little about the kings of this period.

Culturally this period likely saw the same trends in Minato that occurred throughout the Fire Islands during the migrations. Sun Warrior culture was slowly absorbed into native culture until the only thing that remained was a hybrid culture native to the Fire Islands but different from the one that had existed prior to the arrival of the Sun Warriors. The mediums of art trended away from stone and towards silk and paper. Architecture remained largely a practical endeavour rather then an independent artistic pursuit. While the pre-migration Fire Islands had their fare share of towering buildings the introduction of dragon warfare led to an end to this practice.

Religion likely remained shamanistic during this period, most similar to the religious structure in the Water Tribes. The Fire Sages had been founded by thus point, but their organization had not yet reached Karudera. Though pilgrimages to Sho were common spiritual matters generally tended to be addressed by local kings or wise men.

Politically speaking Fire Nation records confirm that Minato followed the model of most other petty kingdoms of this era. A single King of a city and surrounding farmland. The King's power rested on his control of the food supply, in this case mostly rice and his dragons. He was at times advised by smaller landowners or merchants, but always held absolute power.

 

Now would be a good time to review the three largest petty kingdoms along Twin Dagger Sea. At this point in history Minato (shown as s Red Dot) was not a major player even in the sound and likeky had no formal contact with any group outside of it with the obvious exception of the Air Nomads, though the Fire Islands remained a backwater even for them until the final collapse of the Sun Warriors.

To the north of Minato lay the Island of Sho, nominally united under the Gun Dynasty, shown in pink. In practice the various clans on the island were often fighting for power so although trade to and from the island was a major economic engine little political power was exerted by the Gun. However despite their lack of temporal power the Gun Dynasty were still very influential do to their religious influence. As mentioned above Sho was a unifying spiritual place in an otherwise fragmented religious landscape. This meant that while politically speaking it Sho was weak it was an important cultural hub. Fashions favored by the Gun became popular across the Twin Knife Sea, the written epics of the day, most tragically lost, originated in the Court on Sho. The art mentioned previously originated from artists supported by the Gun Dynasty. Thus the island of Sho was enormously influential to the situation around Minato.

The Kingdom of Kido to the south was notable for its military prowess. This was largely due to its founder, Kido. Unlike many founders of petty kingdoms Kido is confirmed to have existed from various contemporary sources. Kido is credited with compiling two vastly important works, The Art of Fire, the world's first Fire Bending instruction book and a philosophy book called Contemplations which is tragically lost. Secondary sources indicate that it is possible Kido was an Avatar left unrealized due the chaos of the age. However these stories remain rumors as the only source that could possibly have any credibility, the records of the Air Nomads, have been destroyed. Avatar or not Kido successfully fought off several invasions. His successors continued his military victories and of the petty kingdoms Kido was the largest and most powerful. Students from around the Twin Dagger Sea came to study at the Academy of Fire Bending and Avatar Rohan the Long received his accreditation as a Fire Bending Master there. Kido often took a leading role in fighting pirates, who often came from Kido itself. This put it into conflict with the greatest power in the sea, Shou.

Shou was a city divided, by the Straits of Azulon (then called the Heavenly Gate). Commanding the entrance to the Twin Knife Sea Shou had a strong economic base to begin with. It was an oligarchy, ruled by the heads of the Guilds and Shipping Families, the so called 512 Masters. Headed by the Lord Admiral, elected by the masters every 8 years, Shou had a strong, unified fleet that defended trade with an iron fist. All ships that wished to exit the sea needed to be approved by one of the shipping families to pass the Gates. Pirates, and any king that gave them quarter, were mercilessly taken down. Oddly, reputable merchant towns that were growing too large were often found to have been harboring pirates by the Lord Admiral. To the outside would Shou was the face of the Twin Dagger Sea during the post migration era, and ships from its great port reached as far as the Water Tribes. They seemed the one constant in the turbulent world of petty Kings. But it was the Shou that would bring about the end of the world that they dominated, and it would be Shou that inadvertently provided a chance for the Minatonotaisho to begin their rise to power.


End file.
